A panel of 46 eminent jurors from across the United States selected the top photographs from nearly 5,700 total submitted entries at Gwinnett Technical College in Georgia. Judged against a standard of excellence, 2428 images were selected for the General Collection and 1007 were selected for the esteemed Loan Collection—the best of the best. The Loan Collection images will all be published in the much-anticipated "Loan Collection" book and over 200 selected General Collection images will be published in the "Showcase" book by Marathon Press.

All accepted images will also be on display at the International Photographic Exhibition at Imaging USA, held in the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, TX, Jan. 8-10, 2017.

You’re competing with PPA members from across the globe now and this ain’t a competition playground: this level of competition (the IPC) actually involves two judgings.

The first one determines if your images are merit-worthy (yeah, that’s industry-speak to say you made the first cut). If they are, you earn a second judging, which could possibly earn you an additional merit and a spot in the Loan Collection (our way of saying that your work is the “best of the best”). Images that earn a Seal of Approval at the district level are also considered for the Loan Collection, and are published in the annual Loan Collection book AND exhibited at Imaging USA.
Participating in the IPC can help you earn your PPA degree: earn enough merits and you’ll earn a Master of Photography degree in no time.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Lisa Cuchara's photograph "Tree Frog In A Jack-In-A-Pulpit" won a merit award in the 36th George W. Glennie Nature Salon.

The 36th George W. Glennie Nature Salon had 798 images from 80 clubs, representing 7 countries and 21 states in the US. All images submitted to the Glennie Nature Competition are judges and scored. The award winning images as well as approximately 1/3 of the top scoring images are accepted into the Glennie Nature Salon.

Ramada Hotel Seekonk, Massachusetts October 29th, 30th, 2016This is a unique annual photo conference dedicated to macro photography. Mike Moats has designed a program where professional photographers could come together and teach their skills in macro photography and post processing techniques to those who want to learn, and advance their macro photography to the next level. Not just inspiring and how-to lectures and five hours of photographing with varying subject matter (we and the other speakers will be available to help participants with composing subjects and technical aspects). Come and learn and be inspired!!Bring your camera, macro lens, and tripod!Looking for a tripod? http://tinyurl.com/cuchara-huntsvanguardThis Vanguard tripod best one for Macro photography because you can change the angle and you can get your camera sensor parallel to your subject. Vanguard 263 AT Tripod is a great all around tripod, and it is especially great for Macro photography www.huntsphotoandvideo.com/detail_page.cfm?productid=263AT&

Six prints created by Lisa Cuchara of BREA Photos in Hamden have recently been awarded Blue ribbons (Award of Expert) at the Connecticut Professional Photographers of America's 2016 Annual Print Competition. Lisa's work was on display at the Sheraton Hartford South, March 18-20 2018, in Rocky Hill, CT. This exhibition was held in conjunction with the CTPPA convention, an annual convention of professional photographers and photographic associations. Lisa's portrait website can be viewed at www.BREAphotos.com and her creativity and teaching website can be viewed at www.photographybylisaandtom.com.

Lisa also won CTPPA Photographer of the Year in the ART/EI category (based on the total accumulated points) from all four quarterly competitions and CTPPA Photographer of the Year in the Creative category (based on the total accumulated points) from all four quarterly competitions. This is the third year in a row that Lisa has won CTPPA Photographer of the Year in those two categories.

A panel of five eminent jurors selected the top images from all of the submitted entries. Judged against a standard of excellence, Lisa's images were selected for awards — the best of the best. Lisa's photographs entitled "Frog on Calla Lily" (highest scoring print of the 2016 convention), "Veiled chameleon", "Prison tough", "Barn with star trails and first light", "Disoriented at the Insane Asylum" and "Left behind" all earned Award of Expert Blue ribbons. Lisa also won a Judge's Choice award for one of her photographs and the Kodak award for another one of her photographs. Her photograph "Frog on Cala Lily" was the highest scoring image at the annual print competition. The total of the her six photographs earned Lisa the 2016 CTPPA Treskunoff Award (for the highest total point score for the 6 prints entered at the CTPPA convention).

About Professional Photographers of America (PPA)
Established in 1880, PPA is an international non-profit association for professional photographers. PPA exists to assist its 22,000 members in achieving their professional, artistic and fraternal goals; to promote public awareness of the profession; and to advance the making of images in all of its disciplines as an art, a science and a visual recorder of history.

Six photographs created by Tom Cuchara of BREA Photos in Hamden have been awarded ribbons at the Connecticut Professional Photographers of America's 2016 Annual Print Competition. Tom's work was on display at the Sheraton Hartford South, March 18-20 2018, in Rocky Hill, CT. This exhibition was held in conjunction with the CTPPA convention, an annual convention of professional photographers and photographic associations.

guide images for the above composite image.

A panel of five eminent jurors selected the top images from all of the submitted entries. Judged against a standard of excellence, all six of Tom's images were all selected for awards. Tom also won a Judge's choice for one of his photographs.

About Professional Photographers of America (PPA)
Established in 1880, PPA is an international non-profit association for professional photographers. PPA exists to assist its 22,000 members in achieving their professional, artistic and fraternal goals; to promote public awareness of the profession; and to advance the making of images in all of its disciplines as an art, a science and a visual recorder of history.

Monday, March 28, 2016

Join us for three days of photography education with the industry’s top photographers, including Speakers from throughout the country: Matt Kloskowski, Ellen Anon, Denis Reggie, Mark Bowie, Fay Sirkis, Lisa Cuchara, James Schnelzer, Jeff Allen, Denis Reggie, James Schmelzer, Rick Friedman, Ron Magill, Mary Lou Frost, Cheryl Belczak, Ray Sopczuk, William Potter, John Walrath
and more!

We will have model shoots and other photo opportunities, a trade show, conference workshops in a variety of levels that will appeal to all photographers from beginner to professional, as well as print and slide salons.

Register online at http://www.canamphotoexpo.com/store. The CanAm Photo Expo registration is now open. Your convention pass gets you full access to all of our fantastic speakers, access to the print salon judging, the Golden Horseshoe Competition, photo shoots, hands on workshops, awards presentation and gala as well as the trade show.

Our Classes:

Friday

“Macro and Closeup photography” a photography program by Lisa Cuchara
Learn to see, be see we mean notice the “everyday details” around us all the time. This program will introduce the equipment and techniques needed to photograph the beauty and drama of the closeup and macro world. Discover another universe, the small world. We will discuss the technical, aesthetic, and creative aspects of Closeup and Macro Photography. We will discuss tools that could be used to capture and light small objects: tripods, macro rails, macro lenses, zoom lenses with macro capability, extension tubes, macro diopters, the Canon 500D close-up lens, focus stacking, etc. This presentation will concentrate on “Closeup and Macro Photography for flowers and critters”

Saturday

“Working with Light Tents” a photography program by Lisa Cuchara
Learn about lighting flowers, macro, still-life, critters, etc. using a light tent. Presented at the 2nd annual Mike Moats Macro Conference October 2015

“Non-critters/non-Flower closeup and Macro Photography” a photography program by Lisa and Tom Cuchara.
This is a variation of our program “For the love of Rust, Dirt, Dust” a program about our approach to historic and abandoned buildings, urban decay, etc. This program is about seeing and finding the “trees in the forest” so to speak and telling the story thru closeups and details found at the location. HDR, EDR and light painting will also be discussed in this program.

“Post-processing: Applying Textures to photographs of closeup subjects, flowers, critter, gears, etc.” a photography program by Lisa Cuchara
Lisa will discuss the basics of textures and then go into Photoshop and demonstrate textures using some closeup and macro images. What is a texture? We know texture when we see it, but when we refer to a “Texture” as photographic tool we mean a photograph that is placed on top of another photograph and then “blended” or adjusted to affect how it is portrayed. “Textures” can be just that, photographs of rust, peeling paint, old paper, etc., but they can also be clouds, bokeh, bubbles, water drops, wallpaper, walls, words, old letters, grass, etc. The specific texture that you pick will affect how your photograph underneath looks, but you have additional choices by changing the blending mode (there are 20 blend mode, but a handful that are commonly used when blending textures) for that texture later. Changing the blending modes alters the way that particular texture interacts with the photograph underneath. Join Lisa Cuchara as she shows you how to edit some of your photographs to give them a different feel by applying textures to them. Textures can add a mood or a feel to an image; making the photograph softer, warmer, grungier, older, etc. In this intermediate workshop (assumes knowledge of layers and masks) Lisa will show you how to collect your own textures, how to use textures, how to remove textures from part of an image, how to remove color from a texture and change the color of the texture and how to prevent the texture from affecting of the photograph below while leaving the color.

Sunday
— two sessions of a hands on macro shooting workshop

We will bring some items to be photographed. We would also bring some textures to shoot so participants can take home some of their own texture photos to use. We will work with participants for the duration of the macro workshop, exposure, depth of field, exploring tripod use, lens choice, creative in camera techniques, etc.

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“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” Let us create memories from your moments. We enjoy taking pictures that will bring you right back to the moment for years and decades to come.

We would be honored to photograph your child, your family, your special event, etc. Please email us at BREAphotos [AT] comcast.net

About Us

We are passionate about our photography (we even met in a camera club). We have presented programs at NHCC, NECCC, Greater Lynn, PSA, and to various other camera and nature clubs across the New England region. We also judge photographic competitions, teach various photo and photoshop workshops, have had several successful gallery exhibitions of their work, had photographs in Adirondack Life, Birder's World, Wild Bird, the WCC wolf calendar and on the cover of paperback novel.
We love any chance to take pictures. We appreciate the world around us and embrace the challenge of interpreting what our eyes and heart see via the camera lens. Nature photography (birds, landscapes, flowers) gives us a chance to appreciate the "everyday miracles" that surround us.
We also love the challenge of photographing people, babies, weddings, etc. We feel honored when we are photographing a wedding - privileged to be witnessing such a sacred moment in the lives of two people.
We can be reached via email: BREAphotos@comcast.net

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